Over 6,000 panchayats in Chhattisgarh will receive an amount of Rs 10,000 each for celebrating the Chhattisgarhi festival. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel launched ‘Chief Minister Chhattisgarhi Parab Samman Nidhi Yojana’ for non-scheduled areas of the state in a virtual program organized at his residential office on Thursday.
A government statement said the initiative was launched “with an aim to preserve and promote local festivals, culture and tradition of rural areas”.
“The primary unit of this scheme will be the Gram Panchayat. Under this scheme, to celebrate these local festivals, each gram panchayat will be given an amount of Rs 10,000 in two installments.
“Though the amount of ₹10,000 given under the Chief Minister Chhattisgarh Lok Parab Samman Nidhi is not a huge amount, but because of the Chhattisgarhi festivals through Panchayats, people are following their tradition, and our new generation is following this tradition Adopting,” Mr. Baghel at the launch event.
The development is one of a list of local festivals and initiatives to celebrate different aspects of culture (or rather the cultures of a diverse state) launched by Mr. Baghel since assuming power in 2018.
The government had in the past included some local festivals in the list of holidays and also installed idols of ‘Chhattisgarh Mahtari’ (mother).
The ruling Congress claims that building a strong regional relationship is a key element of the “Chhattisgarh model” of governance that it wants to promote.